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Praetorium Honoris

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Coat and Tie Required

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Well, I wasn't going to talk about shoes today (disappointing, yeah?), somehow I wound up thinking about dress codes and the like. A topic I'm sure Beans will expound upon at length in the comments. Or not, he seems to have a mind of his own.

As to the angry mob in the opening photo, those folks were outside The Chant's regional headquarters in Transylvania demanding to know why Beans hasn't posted lately. They also wanted to know who this felină urină însoţitor fellow was. As I didn't speak the lingo, I had to confess to my people out there that I had no idea but would make inquiries. Yes, they asked the same of LUSH but when I said, "boss's daughter," they all nodded and dispersed.

Nepotism, they understood.

Oh by the way, the guy at the left front? He must be management, he looks pissed off and isn't wearing a tie. The guy right behind him is his brother-in-law, one of the hundreds of vice presidents corporations have. (Well, he might be a government guy, hard to tell the difference.)

Anyhoo, dress codes. When I first embarked on this civilian gig I wore nice slacks and shoes, and a nice button down shirt, short-sleeved in summer, long-sleeved in the winter. (In spring and fall I would mix it up, based on temperature.) For some months I went on like that.

Then I heard of this "casual Friday" concept. Seems that many folks would wear jeans and maybe a t-shirt on that day. Also seemed that many managers of a higher station owned nothing but a single pair of "mom jeans." Which of course, they wore on Fridays. (Hhmm, I did a search on "mom jeans" using Google, seems that their search algorithm has gone completely brain dead. Google search worked much better not that long ago. No doubt the nannies have stormed and taken Google HQ. To be fair, a Duck Duck Go search also sucked. Attractive women in jeans is not "mom jeans." Even if the lady is a mom.)

But I digress.

One day I decided that I would wear jeans to work, on a Friday, because I could. When a colleague noticed, he asked me what was up, I told him that I had decided to participate in "casual Friday" as it seemed the right thing to do.

"Seriously?" he queried.

"Why not?" I replied.

"Why not wear whatever you want whenever you want, screw The Man. We're software developers, the customer expects us to be a bit weird, if we look too corporate, we'll lose our credibility!"

So I wore jeans that very next Monday. Which set The Missus Herself off.

"What are you doing?" she wanted to know.

"Uh, wearing jeans. Why?" I asked knowing what was coming.

"You should dress for the job you want, not the job you have." she said.

"But this is the job I want..."


"Are you insane?" The love of my life wanted to know.

"Probably, why do you ask?"

"You're an idiot!"

"And your point is?"

As you might gather, that went nowhere. I continued to "toe the line" for another couple of years. Then the software work kind of dried up for a bit, so they made me a software tester. On the midnight to 0800 shift.

I was in Seventh Heaven.

No managers, no incessant phone calls, and automated corporate emails which we could simply ignore. All the big boss cared about was getting the job done. He summed up his dress code thusly - "Clothes will be clean and in good repair and will cover all the naughty bits. Oh, no shorts, I hate shorts."

There ya go, simple, direct, and to the point.

Now I'm an integration tester, I think we're supposed to wear pants. At least...



Yup, we see that all the time...



54 comments:

  1. Good for you Sarge! I think they call that panache.

    My far distant relatives fought unjust taxation and received land for service during the Revolution.
    My distant relatives fought unjust taxation and lost everything they had built on the land they received.
    My not so distant relatives hung tough through the dust bowl, and chased their land to try and farm it.

    I'm a rebellious and stubborn Texican by birth and heredity, and dress codes make my eyes bleed. I don't like short sleeves, I hate shorts. If God had wanted me naked, I'd been born that way. I came out with boots and jeans, and intend to continue that way. (I'm sure it was hard on mom, but she was a tough lady and never said boo about it.)

    I am no slave to fashion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Working in a office where we had public contact there were no casual Fridays but I always dreaded when Summer rolled around because the flip-flops came out...... SLAP.....SLAP.....SLAP.... when the women walked past. No shorts in the office during the workweek but polo shirts in summer and dress shirts the rest of the year, with chinos and dress shoes. Only wore jeans or shorts to work on Saturday overtime when John Q. wasn't around. Ya......pants are a good thing Sarge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Argh, flip-flops, belong on the beach, not in the office.

      Pants are good.

      Delete
  3. Sarge - yesterday you said, "I think I'm done with sartorial posts for the nonce." Should we treat this as akin to, "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor?" :-)

    I had to wear a tie for many years in my interactions with customers. Glad I don't have to do that anymore - the tie, that is; I mostly enjoyed the customer interaction since they were all smarter than me and did very interesting work.

    Had a colleague that wore a suit and tie every frickin' day, no matter the weather. Was with him one summer day when it was about 105 degrees with about 90% humidity. I suggested we leave our coats in the car and loosen our ties - he said he couldn't do that sine it wouldn't be professional looking. I told him that sweating through his shirt and coat and soaking his collar from the sweat on his head wasn't very professional either!

    Trivia about Flip-flops - don't refer to them as that in Hawaii, use 'slippers' (slippahs) instead, since 'flip' is a derogatory term for someone from the Philippines.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sigh, I know, I wanted to write about something else, but the Muse was insistent.

      I knew that last bit, I will still call them flip-flops. It's also a derogatory name for indecisive people.

      Delete
  4. My Dress Code experiences. (And why is it called a Dress Code even though I don't wear a dress?)

    Military. Dress Code.
    Two of my civilian jobs supplied work uniforms. Dress Code.
    One civilian mechanic job required long pants, and the T shirt had to have a pocket. Dress Code Lite.
    LEO. Dress code.
    Heavy rail mechanic. No dress code.
    That means that I had a dress code every work day for around, (mumbled counting) 38 years.

    Retirement dress code. (now that I'm in rebellion against being told how what to wear)
    Winter, BDUs pants or jeans with a variety of shirts.
    Summer, shorts and t shirts.

    Shorts.
    Once I shift into the summer retirement uniform of cargo shorts, I'm wearing them until we close the pool for winter.
    Shortened BDU pants make a great pair of cargo shorts.

    I watched Buster Keaton's "The General" and as seen in your clip, the stunts were staggeringly dangerous.

    Oddly, pantaloons have nothing to do with a diving bird, and dressage doesn't involve dresses.

    Interesting post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pantaloons aren't a description for a winded diving bird?

      Illusions, shattered...

      Delete
    2. My version, John...

      Flying Career, Dress Code. (Flight Suit)
      Remainder of Military, Dress Code (Class C Open neck Short sleeve light blue shirt, Wings, Rank, Name Tag no ribbons)
      Teaching, Dress Code (of my own, Short sleeve, button shirt with pocket, slacks, leather shoes)
      Technology, Dress Code (again of my own, Polo Shirt, slacks, leather shoes)
      Summer Techology (no students/teachers, Polo Shirt, Jeans, Comfortable shoes)
      Working in the Server Closet (T-shirt (that I didn't care if they got ruined, so pretty ratty at the start), jeans and comfortable shoes)
      Retirement (Not Sunday, not going into town- T-Shirt, Jeans and comfortable shoes, going into town-Polo Shirt. Sunday, Polo, Slacks Leather shoes)

      Delete
    3. I spent most of my military career in fatigues (early), then in BDUs for the remainder. I did wear the standard office uniform you described a few times, first time I tore a pair of dress pants trying to untangle a mass of cabling I went to BDUs, permanently.

      If they'd kept the 1505s I would have worn those all the time, comfortable and practicle.

      Delete
  5. First pair of flip-flops were issued in boot camp and were called shore shoes.
    After I got out I avoided them for fifty years, occasionally wearing sandals, until five years ago, when I found they actually make some that don’t feel like they’re gonna split open your feet.
    I agree they aren’t always appropriate, and some folks just shouldn’t wear them, EVER.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm one of those people, Skip. So I don't.

      Delete
    2. My first pair was in the AF, we called 'em "shower shoes."

      I'll wear sandals to the beach. No where else. Full stop.

      Delete
  6. Hey AFSarge;

    You gotta listen to "Household 6" to use an Army term. I am fortunate, I have a company provided uniform, so I have no qualms on trashing it in the course of my duties. Unfortunately I have to wear "Steel toes". There is tour gratuitous shoe comment for the Post, LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SWMBO.

      Ah, glad we had a shoe comment. (No, I wasn't talking about the SWOs.)

      Delete
  7. Nice post. Lack of Beans posts due to issues. Many issues. One of which will come up on probably a multi-multi-series... Or not. Maybe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I told the mob that, they only dispersed when I told them that LL was giving out free candy.

      Delete
    2. But the only candy LL hands out is... Ohhhh...

      Clever, very clever...

      Delete
  8. That guy in that absolutely stunning floor-level tunic and matching cloak? Whell, all those little dots of black? Are the tails of ermines... lots of little ermines. Funny that weasels became a symbol of royalty, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Boat Place - Short sleeve button shirt, slacks, hard shoes of semi-dress kind - I had to provide because the manager was a cheap bastige - the mechanics got uniforms provided, but no... not the poor guy in the parts room crawling around in 50 year old dust (yes... 50 year old dust.)

    Mental Not-Prison - dress slacks, polo or dress shirt, dress shoes (at the time I was so broke I couldn't afford decent work shoes, mkay? This was before Wallyworld stopped it's 'We Only Sell American' policy, so cheap gunboat covers not available...)

    KFC - their cloths, kitchen shoes.

    The Battery Place - dress pants, dress shirt and tie, tshirt, dress shoes.

    The Battery Place MkII - same same, but as a contract employee, not a real employee, you bastiges (prolly a good idea considering how quickly place went TU after new pink company took it over.)

    Da City PD - dress pants, longsleeve dress shirt, tie, tshirt, dress shoes. And the women wearing exposed shoulder outfits and open shoes set the AC level.... grrrr....

    Da City/County/Fed Task Force - nice pants, polos, closed shoes were fine enough... Oh, Sorry, No Shorts and Sandals even though the AC is out and won't be replaced for a year because the PD Finance Master is a total jerk and spending too much time swiving bimbos on his desk and carpet (forensic measures made his carpet look like either Schweinfurt after a bombing run or the Oval Office after Bill Clinton left, no, seriously.) Why no shorts and sandals? Because someone (girl staff assistants) might see me at my desk in a semi-secret location 4 miles away from them and demand they should be able to wear less than sundresses or sleeveless tops and skorts, bad girls, no biscuits, and no, not even my one remaining set of real Bermudas (dress bermudas, no, really) counted. Told to me by some nameless boss jerk who was wearing... shorts, tshirt and sandals and had just come from the main building (Why? Because he was an undercover agent, shhhh, he's being secret....) So, fortunately Ray the maintenance guy who did all our repairs at the super-secret multi-agency drug task force building (conveniently located next to a trailer park we raided about every other week or so. No. Really. We could park our surveillance van in our PARKING LOT and watch and record drug deals...) and parked his CITY OF SOCIALISTIC JERKS vehicle outside our fenced compound (Hey, druggies, in the trades this is known as a CLUE!!!) said 2 weeks into this ordeal when he came to clean up/fix something said he'd have the AC unit over here tomorrow, it's been sitting on the city maintenance lot for 2 years waiting for Captain Ray the Spooge meister to authorize the $150.00 install fee..... Which at that time I said yes, damn the torpedoes, because I had found that we had a budget of over $100,000 from sales and seizures that was supposed to be used to maintain our secret lair and the Feds were bitching at us (through the city, which is why we never heard about it) for not using the money at all. Poof, AC, new metal roof, new fence, more than 10 electrical circuits wired to a 25KW generator (yeah, we had a huge generator running... 20 outlets and 4 banks of lights. No a/c, no server farm cabinet (in a closed closet with no air flow...) no power to the refrigerator where we kept evidence, no power to the evidence lockers or security systems so, yeah, well, enough of that. Hopefully the jerks have moved to one of 10 places I found for them by now. If not, screw them.)

    Post-working for someone else - Whatever I want and Mrs. Andrew will allow me to be seen in... which is usually, come winter or summer, cargo shorts, sandals and a t-shirt maybe polo. Cold requires addition of camo jacket (from Walmart - $15.99 on sale, and it fit me!!! squeeeeeee!!!!)(I don't think I'll make that noise again... maybe.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please, Beans, FTLOG don't make that noise again!

      ;-)

      Delete
    2. Beans - Amazing. Love the "CITY OF SOCIALISTIC JERKS vehicle" line.

      Delete
    3. juvat - Yes, all the dogs in the neighborhood started barking at once.

      Delete
    4. Not kidding about the socialist thing. They spent $500k redoing the logo that they had for years into 'Every Path starts with Passion,' which sounded too much like 'Great Leap Forward' or 'The Long March' to me. Maybe more than $500k, having to rebadge all their vehicles, buildings, letterheads, forms, notepads, mayor's toilet paper, pens and pencils and all that jazz. All during a time the city was whining about being in a 'budget crisis.'

      Seriously, 2 weeks after the new edict over letterhead came down, I forwarded a letter on the old letterhead to City Hall and they sent it back because not right letterhead. Even though the original letter was written pre-transition. Bastiges.

      As to making happy noises about finding clothing that fits me for a price I'm willing to spend, well... maybe.

      Delete
    5. Socialists love spending other people's money.

      Delete
    6. Will echo juvat's 10:08 post Beans, puleeese don't make that noise again. It's OK for a 13 year old zombie killer to make that sound but someone of your age and gender.....no....just... no.

      Delete
    7. Oh, so it's okay for Sarge to get in touch with his inner child and play drums but it's not okay for me to embrace my inner Otaku, is it?

      I see how things are run around here....hrmph!

      Delete
    8. I think Sarge has the headphones plugged in. He's the only one hearing the sound. Kinda like me. I'm the only one hearing the voices in my head.

      Wait a sec...They're talking again....Be right back....

      Delete
    9. オタクさん、ごめんなさい、何?

      Delete
    10. juvat - I march to the beat of a different drummer, one who is out of sync and kinda spastic.

      But you knew that.

      Delete
    11. If I did the copy and paste correctly, and Google did its translate thing correctly, then this is the definition of Otaku.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku

      Delete
  10. I am reminded of the time when Bella Abzug was a newly elected Member of Congress. On her first day she walked onto the Floor of the House with her signature gaudy hat. Fishbait Miller (Yeah, that was his name) the longtime Doorkeeper of the House walked over and informed her that there was a dress code for the United States House of Representatives and she could not wear a hat on the Floor of the House. Bella looked at him pugnaciously and said "FORK you!" From thence forward there was a dress code for the other 434 Members.

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    Replies
    1. That woman was a piece of work, not a fan.

      Delete
    2. I didn't know work was another term for excre.....

      Delete
    3. It is indeed, I didn't know they could pile it that high.

      Delete
    4. Ah, Bella Abzug. Replaced by her dimwitted clone Frederica Wilson...

      Delete
    5. Birds of a bloody feather those two!

      Delete
  11. Regarding your fruitless search for a definition of "Mom Jeans", I find that I have to go frequently to the Urban Dictionary when I hear jibber-jabber from the younger generation. And thus we find:

    Mom Jeans

    jeans highlighting the flat curvature of the 40+ buttocks. Similies: upside-down-heart shaped-butt. Commonly seen aacompained with front butt. Extremly high waist, and always a crappy shade of blue or black. Usually found in Kohl's or Mervyn's.

    "Susie, now that youve had 10 kids, lets get you into some mom jeans.."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why thank you BP, I was looking for a picture of someone in mom jeans, but that's a mighty apt description!

      Delete
    2. Ok. now I am a mom. and I have a lot of jeans, even a pair of Wranglers...but I don't have ANY mom jeans. And I am fine with that!! 10 kids!!Ya know how big Suise's butt is when she has had 10 kids!!! I only had 1 kid and it still isn't happening!! And what is the name of all that is good is a "front butt" pray tell?? If it is what used to be called Dunlap's disease...as in the gut dun lapped over the belt...Nope not going there!!!

      So far as dress code: Ya, nurse here. When I worked in the nursing home is was white uniforms (this was before scrubs...yes, I am THAT old)
      When I worked in HMO in the clinic's white pants (stretchy white jeans) with colored polo shirts, or short sleeve blouses (ironed) and white shoes.
      When I go into homecare it was navy blue bottoms in the winter, light blues in the summer (kaki's were my favorites) and white polo shirts and dark blue or white shoes depending on the time of year. In winter I wore LLBean snow sneakers in grey which are THE BEST THING EVER for climbing steps loaded with ice and snow, keeping feet dry, warm, but not too hot and were still comfie to drive in.
      Whe I was doing my diabetes educator gig I had to wear real people clothes, so I stuck with different colored kaki slacks, nice polo shirts or blouse or sweater and appropriate footwear which were Hush Puppy dress shoes with 2 inch heel in blue or black.
      Then I moved to MI where we have to wear scrubs. And white sneakers. Nice ones. Sooo not a fan of scrubs. Just not!

      So like every other nurse out there I have REALLY dressy clothes for weddings/New Years Eve type parties, I have scrubs for work, and I have jeans, cargo shorts (pockets!!!) for summer and t-shirts. And for working outside in the winter I have a pair of Carhart bibs which are even better than my snow sneakers for keeping me warm and dry.

      Delete
    3. Since Hollyweird wants women with flat fronts, that pooch that develops on a woman of breeding age, even a skinny one, is called a front butt. Seriously. Designers want women to look like teenage boys. Mayhaps because many designers want teenage boys...

      Most disturbing line out of any good movie: "She has an ass(et) like a 10 year old boy!" What? I mean, that comment right there shoulda ended up with the writer and whoever approved it to end up with a semi-fatal case of plumbum poisoning. Overall Great Movie - Serious throw up moment.

      There's an interesting line in one of Louis McMaster Bujold's 'Miles Vorkosigan' series where both father and son appreciate women who can survive through small famines. I like that description. Zaftig, baby, zaftig!

      Delete
  12. Hey Suz, Carhartt insulated bibs for snow removal for the win!

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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